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Psychoanalysis differentiated among children three main varieties of the sense of entitlement: normal; inflated; and compromised.[1] A normal or healthy sense of entitlement included an expectation of responsiveness from significant others,[2] a sense of agency, and a sense of one's right to one's own feelings - all forming positive elements in self-esteem.[3] The inflated sense of entitlement sought special privileges for the individual alone, perhaps to compensate for childhood suffering or narcissistic injury; while the compromised sense involved an inability to expect the basic rights enjoyed by those around one.[4]

Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy distinguished in adult life between (ethically) earning entitlement in relationships, through care and consideration, and a subjective feeling of entitlement the real basis for which may be very different.[5] Thus the depressive may have an unjustifiably low sense of entitlement, the manic an exaggeratedly high one.[6] The gambler may feel entitled to expect a big win, to compensate for childhood deprivation; those who clamour most loudly for such reimbursement from fate may in fact unconsciously doubt their entitlement to anything at all.[7]

An inflated sense of what is sometimes called psychological entitlement[8] - unrealistic, exaggerated, or rigidly held - is especially prominent among narcissists. According to the DSM-5, individuals with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are likely to have a "sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others", typically without commensurate qualities or accomplishments:[9][10] Similarly, according to Vaknin, the narcissistic personality attempts to protect the vulnerable self by building layers of grandiosity and a huge sense of entitlement.[11]

While an earned sense of entitlement is usually seen as more beneficent than purely psychological entitlement, it can also have a destructive counterpart in the sense of a felt entitlement to revenge based on the accumulation of grievances.[12]